ON ICE: Bruins right wing Nathan Horton is tended to by a trainer after a blindside hit by Vancouver’s Aaron Rome in June during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Photo: AP

The hit that hurt Horton. (AP)

There’s nothing not to endorse at the onset of Brendan Shanahan’s Administration of Transparency, including the way the sureshot future first-ballot Hall of Famer introduces himself as the “NHL’s Senior Vice President of Player Safety” at the top of the videos. He details his (and presumably his counselors’) reasons for meting out justice in the form of supplementary discipline.

The 10-game suspension (five exhibition games, five regular season matches) to repeat offender Jody Shelley for Wednesday’s boarding incident in Philadelphia serves notice that this league’s judge, jury and executioner means business. A Shanahan Standard has now been set, at least as it applies to a repeat offender on a dangerous play that caused injury.

The VP, however, now will be under a fair amount of pressure not to backslide by splitting hairs when a less notorious perp appears before his court. Dealing with pressure was never much of an issue for Shanahan during his 21 seasons on the ice.

It will be fascinating to see how Shanahan interprets the new Rule 48 dealing with headshots in addressing James Wisniewski, a headhunter with a rap sheet, in the aftermath of the incident at the end of Friday’s game in Minnesota when the Columbus defenseman was penalized for an illegal hit to Cal Clutterbuck’s head.

Not having seen the video of the play (that presumably will be posted on NHL.com in conjunction with Shanahan’s explanation of his verdict), it’s obviously impossible to have an opinion on how the VP should react.

At the same time, however, while the amended rule that cites “targeted” hits to the head and eliminates the distinction between “north-south and east-west” blows is a stride in the right direction in player safety, it leaves far too many qualifications and gray areas for it to be interpreted as an entirely laudatory advance in eliminating concussion-creating blows to the head.

If Rule 48 would protect the Aaron Rome hit on Nathan Horton in Game 3 of the Final had it occurred a split-second earlier (as it seems to), then the rule is insufficient. Simple as that.

There is also no good reason for the league to have downgraded a violation of Rule 48 from a 5-minute major plus game misconduct to a 2-minute minor. You mean Rome would have been permitted to have returned to the ice in Game 3 after serving 2 minutes for blasting the Bruins’ winger out of the game and the series?

Shanahan arrives with good intentions. He has established an immediate standard. The league has empowered him. But this new Rule 48 does not.

*

Lost in the frenzy of speculation regarding the potential for dramatic realignment beginning next season was the simple fact that it will take a two-thirds vote from the Board of Governors to approve changes to the current setup.

There is no reason whatsoever that the 10 teams in the Patrick and Adams, uh, the Atlantic and Northeast (ugh), to approve changes in alignment or the schedule that would mandate more travel than the eastern corridor clubs currently undertake.

There is no reason for Washington, Carolina, Tampa Bay or Florida to accept changes that would mean dramatically more games in different time zones.

Look, we get it. There’s more of a burden on clubs in the west. There’s dramatically more cost built into the travel budget. Perhaps the league could create a fund to equalize expenses.

But the suggestion that there is somehow an avenue to create geographic balance is just plain foolish, or there is an appetite in Montreal, Toronto or Ottawa to join an all-Canadian division that would demand more trips per year to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary is not bounded on reality.

*

There isn’t an organization in the NHL with a training staff and medical staff more committed to protecting the safety of its players than the Rangers. There’s not a chance in the world that the team is now or ever was reckless with Marc Staal. None.

If Kyle Turis wants to force his way out of the Phoenix organization, as he does by his refusal to sign a contract, perhaps the 22-year-old, third-overall selection in the 2007 Entry Draft actually may want to, you know, play.

GM Don Maloney, a pretty reasonable guy, has no intention of dealing Turis as long as he remains on the sidelines. The talented center has less than zero leverage in facing a Dec. 1 drop-dead date for signing. If he does not sign by then, not only is he barred from playing in the NHL for the remainder of the season, he will lose a year toward unrestricted free agency.

It’s impossible to suggest that Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi is low-balling Drew Doughty on an offer worth $6.8 million per year to the 21-year-old defenseman, but it’s also a bit bizarre to suggest that the Kings shouldn’t or wouldn’t pay anyone more than the $6.8M per for which Anze Kopitar is under contract.

Kopitar is a very good player, but a Marcel Dionne he is not.

*

This just in: Bud Selig has fined Brandon Prust and Michael Sauer for wearing NYPD hats on the ice following Rangers’ practice on Thursday. Joe Torre says no disrespect intended.